If you want to buy a WordPress plugin business, the listing gives you the headline numbers and the seller gives you the rest. What decides a good purchase is what you check in between. We run FlipWP, a marketplace for buying and selling WordPress businesses, and this guide is what we’d tell a buyer before their first enquiry: what to look at on the listing, what to ask the seller, and what changes hands at the end.
Why buy a WordPress plugin business
Buying a plugin gets you customers, revenue and a place in the WordPress.org directory that would take years to build. Most buyers we see fall into two groups:
- Portfolio companies adding a plugin that fits their existing products, so they can cross-sell to the customers and share support and marketing across the lot
- Individuals buying their first product, often developers who’d rather grow something with revenue than start from nothing
Both groups are buying the same thing: future revenue. Everything below is about working out how much of it is real, and how much of it you’ll keep after the handover.
Start with the listing
A good listing answers the basic questions before you have to ask. Read it for these:
- Revenue for the last 12 months, and how much of it recurs. Annual licences and subscriptions renew; lifetime deals and one-off sales don’t. A plugin with $30K of renewing licences is a different business from one with $30K of lifetime deals.
- The trend. Revenue that’s grown or held steady over two years is worth more than the same figure on the way down. If the listing only shows one year, ask for two.
- The asking price as a multiple of revenue. Most WordPress product businesses we see sell for 1.5 to 2.5 times annual revenue. Above 3x, the seller should be able to say why: a large install base, high recurring revenue or a product that fits a buyer’s portfolio.
- What’s included: the code, the domain, the product site, the customer list, the WordPress.org listing, trademarks and social accounts.
- Why they’re selling. “I’ve moved on to another product” is common and fine. A vague answer is worth a question.
On FlipWP every listing also carries our own commentary on who it suits, and the listings page filters by type, business model, price and ARR, so you can narrow the list to what you’d actually buy.
Check what you can before you enquire
Some of the most useful checks need no help from the seller.
- The WordPress.org page. If there’s a free version, its WordPress.org listing shows active installs, ratings, the support forum and when it was last updated. Unresolved threads in the forum and a long gap since the last release tell you what the support load and the code are like.
- The install trend. Active installs that are flat or falling while revenue grows can mean the seller is raising prices on a shrinking base. Growing installs are the cheapest marketing a plugin has.
- Compatibility. Check the “tested up to” version and the reviews for complaints about recent WordPress or PHP versions. A plugin that needs a rewrite to keep working is a cost to add to the price.
- The product site. Is the pricing page current? Is the documentation complete? Is the checkout working?
- Competitors. Search for the plugin’s main feature. If three free plugins do the same job, the paid version needs a reason to exist.
Ten minutes of this tells you whether it’s worth a conversation, and makes the first message to the seller much better.
What to ask the seller
Your first message should be short and specific. Ask for the things the listing doesn’t show:
- Monthly revenue for 24 months, from the source: Freemius, Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce or Stripe. A screenshot is fine at this stage; read-only access or exports come later.
- Renewal rate and refunds. The renewal rate is the biggest single factor in what the revenue will be next year.
- Costs: hosting, the licensing platform, tools, contractors, any paid ads
- Support: tickets a month, who answers them and how long they take
- The tech stack and upkeep: what the code depends on, how it’s tested and deployed, and how many hours a week the seller spends on it
- Anything outside the product. If services or consulting run through the same account, ask for the product’s revenue on its own. Services income usually leaves with the seller.
A seller who can’t produce monthly figures from the platform they sell through is a reason to slow down, not to walk away: plenty of good plugins are run by developers who’ve never had to report on them.
Due diligence before you commit
Once you’re interested enough to make an offer, check the numbers against the source, not a spreadsheet.
- Financials. Ask for read-only access to the payment or licensing platform, or a live screen share. Check the revenue against the figures you were given, then look at refunds, chargebacks and failed renewals.
- The code. Read it, or have someone you trust read it. Look for security problems, outdated dependencies and anything only the seller understands. The Plugin Check plugin runs the WordPress.org review team’s checks and is a quick first pass.
- Ownership. Make sure the seller owns everything being sold: the code (including any contractor’s work), the domain, the trademark if there is one, and the WordPress.org plugin.
- Customers and licences. Find out how licences and subscriptions will move to you. On Freemius the whole product can move to your store. Stripe subscriptions are tied to the seller’s account and need planning.
A letter of intent usually comes first, setting out the price, what’s included and how long you have for due diligence.
Agreeing the deal and the handover
Most WordPress plugin sales are asset sales: you buy the product, not the seller’s company. The purchase agreement lists every asset, the price and how it’s paid, and how long the seller helps after the sale, often 30 to 90 days.
For the money, an escrow service such as Escrow.com holds your payment until the assets have been handed over, so neither side has to trust the other with everything at once.
The handover itself is a checklist:
- The WordPress.org plugin. The seller adds you as a committer and transfers ownership. Under 10,000 active installs they can do it themselves; above that, the plugins team does it. The steps are in the WordPress.org transfer guide.
- The code repository, the domain and the hosting
- The licensing platform and customers
- Email lists, documentation, support history and social accounts
Our guide on how to sell your WordPress business covers the same steps from the seller’s side, and is worth reading so you know what the seller is preparing.
How buying on FlipWP works
FlipWP lists WordPress plugins, themes and WordPress-focused SaaS, from free plugins with a large install base to businesses asking six or seven figures. New listings go out to members every Monday that we have them, up to four at a time.
Membership is $299 a year. Members see every listing in full, including the seller’s contact details, and deal with the owner directly. Buyers pay nothing on top of the membership when a deal closes. Before a listing goes out we talk through the numbers with the seller and push back on asking prices we think are unrealistic, so the figures you see have had a first look. Our FAQ answers the common questions, and our post on WordPress plugin valuation explains how we think about price.
Ready to buy?
Pick one listing, check what you can on your own, then send the seller the questions above. If you’re not a member yet, become a FlipWP member to see every listing in full and contact sellers directly.
Iain Poulson
November 7, 2026